WELCOME TO THE WORLD CAPITAL OF 💎SAPPHIRE💎 - ILAKAKA!

Did you know that Madagascar is the world leader in sapphire production?

💎And that occurs in this little town that you see in the first 4 pictures! Ilakaka used to have only about 40 residents in early 1990s. But after sapphires were discovered in the Ilakaka river in 1998 its population grew up to 120.000 people today!

💎This town lies directly along the RN7 road, very shortly after Isalo (15 km). During some periods it was considered even "safe" for tourists to visit with organized tours, however, if it's to believe the guide we talked to, right now it's TOO DANGEROUS to stop here. We followed that advise and just drove through!

💎It was such a strange feeling passing through here knowing that around 50% of all world's sapphires comes from this little town that we passed in 5 minutes!

💎Masters of sapphire from Sri Lanka and Thailand and some other countries have settled in this town.

💎Entrance to Ilakaka

💎People looking for the gem stone in the river

💛Savannah landscape after Ilakaka and the road is top 👌

💚Cactus of the arid south is more and more along the road

💙Sea in the distance

🖤Table mountain of Tulear

🧡Arrival at Tulear, the end of the 1000 km long RN7 road

💜Welcome to the semi- desert by the coast of Madagascar! What you see in the last picture is a completely dried up riverbed, which was a desert when we passed over the bridge.